Introduction
Dr Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia is an urban sociologist whose work focuses primarily on housing un/making and critical geographies of the home across Latin America, South Asia and Europe. A particular focus has been the production of alternative home futures and community-led practices, notably senior co-housing in the UK and Europe. Her work is informed by critical postcolonial and feminist research methods, and she has a long-term trajectory in designing, managing and delivering collaborative research projects that engage a range of institutional and civil society actors.
Expert
I have experience working in a range of local and international projects that consider how social inclusions and exclusions take place (at the design, everyday and operational levels) in different housing environments, communities and neighbourhoods. I have looked empirically at questions of urban inclusion and segregation from historical and contemporary perspectives. I am particularly interested in how questions of gender, race, age, socio-economic status and disability may influence outcomes and determine levels of inclusion or exclusion at both policy and practice levels.
Fields of expertise: Evidence for policy / knowledge valorization, Gender equality, Health and wellbeing, Housing, Migration, Participation, Social change / social transformations, Social innovation / public sector innovation / policy innovation, Urban development